How Young adults and teenagers are turning into catalyst for positive climate change.
COVID-19 alone wasn’t enough to make 2020 a historic year; it was also the hottest year on record, with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reaching their highest level in 3.5 million years. According to a McKinsey insights study, between 600 million and 1 billion people could be affected by lethal heatwaves by 2050. Several ecosystems around us are on the verge of tipping over.
Environmentalism is now beginning to get mainstream and Youth are at the forefront of recognising the relationship between the environment and how it affects the majority of mankind.
Worried about the adverse effects of climate change, youth are raising their voices to demand more action to bring a light to the ecological climate crisis. In a world where the future is uncertain due to the arduous impact of climate change. With climate induced environmental emergencies such as floods, extreme temperatures and fires are increasingly becoming the norm, the future for such a vulnerable earth looks quite glum.
Natural disasters to be exacerbated by climate crisis and politics
The complexities of climate crisis has become highly politicised like the Paris Agreement, but young people are able to cut through. With climate parameters that first gave rise to humans, and the world’s leading climate scientists agreeing to the 12 years limit for global warming to increasing temperatures up to 1.5’C across the globe.
Caring for generations to come
Climate change is not yet sufficiently integrated into the educational framework, according to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, with only 50% of countries emphasising the subject in their national-level laws, policies, or teaching plans.
Young climate protestors don’t represent someone else’s agenda, their message is strikingly direct and unvarnished. “They can say a lot of things that older activists can’t say,” says Matthew Nisbet, who studies environmental communication at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. ‘They don’t have careers yet. They don’t have filters that adults might have.’
Climate change and education are inextricably linked. Climate education encourages students to develop a mindfulness culture as well as a sense of responsibility and commitment to the climate crisis.
